![]() The Koreans and Taiwanese, he said, are expected to concentrate on the lower end, while ''the American consumer will opt for more features and more benefits.'' McCarthy of Zenith said he thought American manufacturers could hold off the foreign competition by focusing on the higher end of the market. dollar,'' said Charles Ryan, an analyst with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. ''We will continue to see the same kind of price erosion that we've seen over the last several years, as more Korean-Taiwan products flood the market, thanks to the strong U.S. They usually share the same basic design, with different operating features. ![]() Most models, though marketed under different brand names, are made in the same handful of factories in Japan, under license from the same patents. However, that may just be wishful thinking: Some industry experts say new competition was expected from the Far East, particularly Korea and Taiwan, sometime in mid-1985, which will put additional pressure on prices. Manufacturers said that prices have declined so dramatically that any further easing is unlikely. Five years later, according to figures compiled by the Electronic Industries Association, a Washington-based trade group, the average price to dealers was down to $771 a unit. The first VCR, introduced in 1975 by Sony, carried a list price of $1,400. The average suggested retail price for a VCR today is about $500, but the spread between the low-end and the top-of-the-line is wide: a deluxe VCR can cost as much as $1,500 or more, while a basic unit can be bought, discounted, for just under $300. ![]() Manufacturers, retailers and industry analysts all agree that the most important factor contributing to surging sales growth has been plummeting prices. Whether the exploding sales can be maintained, analysts say, will depend upon two things: the economy, and continued price erosion. ![]()
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